WOW

WOW. what a weekend. 
on friday i travelled with my hubby to perth. we met up with my parents and my sister who had travelled from sydney with her baby girl. on saturday more family and friends arrived and at 5pm we headed up to attend the opening of the 30x30x30 artist challenge 
that i was part of in the darlington hills.

i attended a preview for the artists before the doors opened to the general public. 

well, what can i say? it was just beautiful. 
just to see 900 works, all uniform in size, 
in the one venue was extraordinary. it was fantastic to see how much the works varied in design and concept. not only from one artist to the next, but even within each artist's 30 pieces. some approached the challenge by making a "set" of works, while others treated each canvas separately. being selected to be one of the 30 
artists participating in the challenge 
(out of 96 applicants) was a great achievement, but nothing could compare to planning, creating and completing the works that were hanging before me on Saturday night. 
it was awesome. 
AND i was really thrilled to have sold 
26 of my 30 pieces. yay me.

i have learnt so much in the process. perhaps the most important lesson i have learnt is to turn any sort of resistance or feelings of vulnerability into something positive. whenever i felt this way i was determined to explore why i felt like this. what was i so afraid of? 

why was i so scared? lets face it, we are all scared of failing. but when i challenged myself to "push through" the resistance of feeling this way and harnessed this energy in a positive way 
something really cool happened. 

perhaps that little voice inside saying 
"is my work good enough"? might be silenced now. 

did you know that feelings of vulnerability, 
fear and resistance can be used to foster determination? 

something really magical can happen when 
we believe in ourselves. 

joy can replace fear.
confidence can replace vulnerability. 
acceptance can replace resistance.